Popular video compression standards, such as MPEG-2 and JVT/H.264/MPEG AVC, use intra and inter coding. For proper decoding, a decoder decodes a compressed video sequence beginning with an intra-coded (I) picture, and then continues to decode the subsequent inter-coded (P and B) pictures. A Group of Pictures (GOP) may include an I picture and several subsequent P and B pictures. I pictures typically require many more bits to code than does a P or B picture of equivalent video quality.
When a receiver initially begins receiving a program on a particular channel, such as following a channel change or initial turning on of the receiver, it must wait until an I picture is received to begin decoding properly, which causes a delay. To minimize channel change delay in digital video broadcast systems, I pictures are typically sent frequently, such as every N pictures. For example, to enable ½ second delay of the video decompression portion of the system, it is common to use N=15 for 30 fps content. Because compressed I pictures are so much larger than compressed P and B pictures, this considerably increases the bitrate over what would be required if I pictures were not inserted so frequently.
Most broadcast systems transmit I pictures frequently, for example every ½ second, in order to limit the channel change delay time due to the video decoding system. In some systems, instead of sending full I pictures frequently, a technique called “progressive refresh” is used, where sections of pictures are intra coded. Typically, all macroblocks in the picture are intra-coded at least once during an N-picture period.
In the JVT/H.264/MPEG AVC compression standard, P and B pictures may be predicted using multiple reference pictures, including the pictures before a preceding I picture. The standard identifies random access points as Independent Decoder Refreshes, or IDRs, which constrain that no reference pictures before each IDR are used in predicting pictures following the IDR.
The JVT/H.264/MPEG AVC compression standard includes a tool called redundant pictures, defined in the standard as:                redundant coded picture: A coded representation of a picture or a part of a picture. The content of a redundant coded picture shall not be used by the decoding process for a bitstream conforming to this Recommendation|International Standard. A redundant coded picture is not required to contain all macroblocks in the primary coded picture. Redundant coded pictures have no normative effect on the decoding process. See also primary coded picture.        The slice header contains a redundant_pic_cnt field, whose semantics are defined as:        redundant_pic_cnt shall be equal to 0 for slices and slice data partitions belonging to the primary coded picture. The redundant_pic_cnt shall be greater than 0 for coded slices and coded slice data partitions in redundant coded pictures. When redundant_pic_cnt is not present, its value shall be inferred to be equal to 0. The value of redundant_pic_cnt shall be in the range of 0 to 127, inclusive.                    If the syntax elements of a slice data partition A RBSP indicate the presence of any syntax elements of category 3 in the slice data for a slice, a slice data partition B RBSP shall be present having the same value of slice_id and redundant_pic_cnt as in the slice data partition A RBSP.            Otherwise (the syntax elements of a slice data partition A RBSP do not indicate the presence of any syntax elements of category 3 in the slice data for a slice), no slice data partition B RBSP shall be present having the same value of slice_id and redundant_pic_cnt as in the slice data partition A RBSP.                        
Accordingly, what is needed is an apparatus and method for reducing the perceived delay for the initial display of decoded video content following a channel change.